One of the most exciting things to receive as a gift on Christmas is video games. For me personally, nothing beats the morning I was given the Sega Genesis system I never thought I would possibly get, and playing Sonic’s elusive blue hide right into the ground. And even though that childlike joy will never be experienced again for me, and video game systems are a whole lot different and more expensive these days, it’s still exciting to open up a new video game you haven’t played yet.

To try and help some of you create this joy for your video game playing loved ones, we wanted to create a list of 2009’s best and most-desired game titles. These are the games that most people are going to want if they don’t have them yet, and these are the games that have made the most impact. Obviously you’ll want to make sure they don’t have specific titles in mind, but for the most part, this is where to start reading up on and shopping for video game gift ideas.

Click on over to the other side to check out our very own Holiday Gift Guide: Video Game Edition ’09 for selections to play on Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 game consoles, as well as on your PC.

And don’t procrastinate! No one enjoys last second shopping or the hell that is your local mall a few days before Christmas!

Last month, we learned that Steven Spielberg himself was in negotiations to pick up the dead Halo movie project and develop it himself (Read: A Beacon Of Hope Emerges For The D.O.A. “˜Halo’ Movie & Its Name Is Steven Spielberg). Whether this means the movie will ever finally be made or not remains to be seen, but it is exciting for those who are dying to see this happen. We first got a glimpse of what a movie version of the mega-hit game would look like when District 9 director Neil Blomkamp filmed his own live-action version as a promo for Halo 3, but unfortunately, a huge estimated movie budget killed that project off. Now, fittingly, for the release of the spinoff game Halo ODST, a new director in Rupert Sanders has made yet another live-action promo, and it looks pretty fantastic.

Blomkamp proved that a budget was really no issue if you spend your money wisely — he made District 9 look like it cost $115 Million when in fact it only ran $30 Million. Before Spielberg got involved, Blomkamp said that if the Halo movie did indeed come back to his table he would probably turn it down, so the question became “Who else could do it?” This is a question that apparently Rupert Sanders thinks he has the answer to.

Click on over to see both Blomkamp and Sanders’ live-action Halo shorts, and choose who you would rather helm the movie if it ever happens.